Bitter Seeds
The thrilling novel where British warlocks and German superhuman soldiers collide
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3.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
'A major talent' George R. R. Martin
'A confident and thrilling debut' SFX
Bitter Seeds is the first novel in Ian Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych series - a dark and thrilling masterpiece featuring a twentieth century much like our own, but also chillingly different.
The year is 1939. Raybould Marsh and other members of British Intelligence have gathered to watch a damaged reel of film in a darkened room. It appears to show German troops walking through walls, bursting into flames and hurling tanks into the air from afar.
If the British are to believe their eyes, a Nazi scientist has been endowing German troops with unnatural, unstoppable powers. And Raybould will be forced to resort to dark methods to hold the impending invasion at bay.
But dealing with the occult exacts a price. And that price must be paid in blood.
Praise for Bitter Seeds:
'A white-knuckle plot, beautiful descriptions, and complex characters - an unstoppable Vickers of a novel' Cory Doctorow
'Bitter Seeds may rival Naomi Novik's Tales of Temeraire as a sustained historical fantasy' Booklist
'Tregillis delivers a dynamite first novel' SFREVU
'Exciting and intense . . . The clash of magic and science meshes perfectly with the tumultuous setting' Publishers Weekly
'Receives my highest recommendations' SFFWORLD
The Milkweed Triptych
Bitter Seeds
The Coldest War
Necessary Evil
Also by Ian Tregillis:
The Alchemy Wars
The Mechanical
The Rising
The Liberation
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Debut novelist Tregillis breathes new life into alternate military history with this fun take on WWII. In this version of 1939 Germany, the insane Dr. von Westarp has given WWI orphans superpowers, such as fire-starting, intangibility, and invisibility. As they use their abilities to aid German expansion, young mutant Klaus starts to suspect that he and the other soldiers are being manipulated by his precognitive sister, Gretel. Meanwhile, British secret agent Raybould Marsh recruits his old college buddy, magic-wielding aristocrat Will Beauclerk, to the British cause. Tregillis has trouble fleshing out characters and is overly fond of worn-out plot devices a disastrous raid survived only by the protagonists, an urchin destined for greatness but the action sequences are exciting and intense, and the clash of magic and (mad) science meshes perfectly with the tumultuous setting.
